Pre­sea­son All-Amer­ica AP teams se­lected

Josh Hart is off to a stel­lar start as a mem­ber of the de­fend­ing na­tional cham­pi­ons. The 6-foot-5 swing­man from Vil­lanova will be­gin his se­nior sea­son on The As­so­ci­ated Press’ pre­sea­son All-Amer­ica team.

Josh Hart is off to a stel­lar start as a mem­ber of the de­fend­ing na­tional cham­pi­ons.

The 6-foot-5 swing­man from Vil­lanova will be­gin his se­nior sea­son on The As­so­ci­ated Press’ pre­sea­son All-Amer­ica team.

Hart, the Big East’s pre­sea­son player of the year, re­ceived 53 votes from the same 65-mem­ber na­tional me­dia panel that se­lects the weekly Top 25.

Grayson Allen of Duke was the top vote-get­ter with 61, four more than Ivan Rabb of Cal­i­for­nia.

Dil­lon Brooks of Ore­gon had 30 votes and Monte Mor­ris of Iowa State had 24.

Sopho­more Thomas Bryant of In­di­ana and fresh­men Markelle Fultz of Wash­ing­ton and Josh Jack­son of Kansas all re­ceived 18 votes.

Hart av­er­aged 15.5 points and 6.8 re­bounds last sea­son for the Wild­cats, who beat North Carolina in the ti­tle game on a buzzer-beat­ing 3-pointer by Kris Jenkins.

The last Wild­cat to be a pre­sea­son All-Amer­ica was Kerry Kit­tles in 1995-96, the first sea­son the AP had a pre­sea­son team.

The 6-5 Allen, a ju­nior and one of four vet­er­ans on the Blue Devils’ ros­ter which is loaded with fresh­men stars, av­er­aged 21.6 points, 4.6 re­bounds and 3.5 as­sists last sea­son, shoot­ing 41.7 per­cent from 3-point range and 88.7 from the free throw line.

It hasn’t been long since a Blue Devil made the team as freshman Jahlil Okafor was on it in 2015-16.

Mor­ris is the sec­ond Cy­clone in two years to make the team. He joins Ge­orges Niang who was on it last sea­son. The 6-3 Mor­ris av­er­aged 13.8 points, 3.9 re­bounds and 6.9 as­sists as a ju­nior and Iowa State reached as high as No. 4 in the poll last sea­son.

Nei­ther Cal nor Ore­gon has had a mem­ber of the pre­sea­son team. That changes with Rabb and Brooks, the sec­ond straight sea­son there was two play­ers from the same con­fer­ence as Niang and Buddy Hield of Ok­la­homa were from the Big 12.

Rabb, a 6-11 sopho­more, av­er­aged 12.5 points and 8.6 re­bounds while shoot­ing 61 per­cent from the field for the Golden Bears.

Brooks, a 6-7 ju­nior, av­er­aged 16.7 points and 5.4 re­bounds for the Ducks, who fin­ished fifth in the fi­nal poll.

Hield was the only player last sea­son to make both the pre­sea­son and post­sea­son All-Amer­ica teams. Join­ing the se­nior guard on last sea­son’s pre­sea­son team were se­niors Kyle Wilt­jer of Gon­zaga and Niang, ju­nior Kris Dunn of Prov­i­dence and freshman Ben Sim­mons of LSU.

GERRY BROOME — AP FILE

Duke’s Grayson Allen (3) drives to the bas­ket as North Carolina State’s Abdul-Ma­lik Abu, left, and Cody Martin de­fend dur­ing a game last sea­son. Allen was se­lected to The As­so­ci­ated Press’ pre­sea­son All-Amer­ica col­lege bas­ket­ball team.